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📌

Before I jump back into work this year, I wanted to build a little web game idea I had last summer. The game is called Eyedropper and it is a daily challenge which requires you to find and photograph a random color of the day in your world. You are then scored on the similarity of color you find and how long it takes you to capture it. For example, the color could be red and you might take a photo of a stop sign. One might say there is also an unspoken style score based on how nice your photo looks and the subject matter you choose to capture. You can play the game for free everyday at www.eyedroppergame.com. Once you capture your photo, you’ll be able to share your score to socials using an auto-generated story friendly image. Use the hashtag #eyedropper and tag @eyedroppergame to be featured. After several days of testing, it’s clear players interpret the “competition” of the game differently. For some, it is simply about capturing the color of the day as quickly as possible in their immediate surroundings. For others, they don’t mind sacrificing time to find the closest possible color accuracy. Personally, I’m looking for an interesting photograph, if possible. What’s important to you? The genesis of the game came from a wish to observe my world more closely everyday. It was inspired by many things. First, I loved how Wordle took the world by storm as a free web based game. I was also mulling over the stickiness of BeReal’s random daily prompt and you can imagine a version of Eyedropper which prompts you to play at a random moment of your day. Then there are camera focused games like Pokemon Snap. However, I think it’s the childhood guessing game, “I Spy” which most closely resembles the game mechanics. In general, my goal was to develop something simple, fun, and quick which you could play everyday if you wanted. I also like that while it is a digital game, it really requires your relationship with the real world in order to function. I don’t have any huge ambitions for the game as I mostly just wanted to build it. However, if enough people find it fun and interesting, I’ll certainly keep it maintained and updated. Thanks for playing Eyedropper!

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5mo ago

Ruben Benarroch Esayag

Growith

nice idea but how do you solve the network effect? you need a consideret amount of people in order for this to work

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5mo ago

Lee Martin

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Maker

@rupgo it's a great question and something I'm still sort of grappling with. In general, the primary driver for networking is the share function. Once you play the game, you're encouraged to share your score with the hashtag and tag the eyedropper social accounts for featuring. However, from testing I've noticed that most users are playing in small groups of friends and coworkers because it's much more fun to play together. I'm thinking we might see a sort of small network effect before any sort of larger effect happens.

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5mo ago

Ruben Benarroch Esayag

Growith

@leemartin thanks for the insights! I see you know your audience! Looking forward to see how this evolves

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5mo ago

Lee Martin

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Maker

@rupgo cheers, thanks for the question as it makes me think about these things more intently.

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5mo ago

Nicholas Perell

@rupgo @leemartin I think that's a great point about small groups doing this together. I remember when HQ Trivia came out while I was in high school, and people around me would herd together in the middle of class. I think this has a great chance for enriching small communities using this act of play to build shared experiences.

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5mo ago

Lee Martin

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Maker

@rupgo @nicholas_perell yes, loved HQ Trivia! I have so many people sending me their Eyedropper photos now. 😅

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5mo ago